Search On For Parolee Mistakenly Released From Jefferson County

GOLDEN, Colo. (CBS4/AP) — Authorities are searching for a parolee who was accidentally released from the Jefferson County jail on Tuesday.

Damon Elliot Slayton (credit: Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office)

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office says Damon Elliot Slayton, 41, was being held in the jail in Golden on a parole violation. He was scheduled to be released Tuesday but found out earlier this month his parole was being rescinded and was going back to prison.

(credit: CBS)

Authorities don’t expect any foul play but they don’t know how it happened.

The sheriff’s office says Slayton served time for theft, burglary and robbery. He had been at the jail since Feb. 19.

“Anytime you have an inmate that should be behind bars and is not, I think a logical person could consider that to be a danger to society,” sheriff’s spokesman Mark Techmeyer said. “It appears absolutely the mistake was within our facility here.”

CBS4 spoke with Slayton’s mother, Karen Slayton. She said she hasn’t heard from him and that he is not a violent man. Now she thinks the mistake has put her son’s life in danger.

“I don’t want anything to happen to my son over a mistake, that’s my major point,” Karen Slayton said.

She says her son isn’t violent and the mistake that let him leave the jail could make people think he’s aggressive.